Driver in fatal March crash arrested

A 55-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with a crash that left his passenger dead last March in north Wichita, police and court records show.

Passenger Kevin E. Donn Sr. was killed when the car he was riding in slammed into a tree near 21st and Waco on March 5. The driver, Melvin L. Day, has been arrested and charged in connection with the fatal crash.
File photo

Melvin L. Day, 55, is charged with second-degree, reckless murder in the March 5 traffic death of 54-year-old Kevin E. Donn Sr. Donn was a passenger in the car Day was driving when it slammed into a tree near 21st and Waco.
Courtesy of Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office

Melvin L. Day is charged in the March 5 traffic death of 54-year-old Kevin E. Donn Sr.
Courtesy of the Kansas Department of Corrections

A 55-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with a crash that left his passenger dead last March in north Wichita, police and court records show.

Melvin L. Day, of Wichita, made his first appearance in Sedgwick County District Court on Friday afternoon on one count of second-degree, unintentional but reckless murder. He is charged in the March 5 death of Kevin E. Donn Sr., who was killed when the car he was riding in slammed into a tree near 21st and Waco.

Prosecutors have offered an alternate count of involuntary manslaughter in the case against Day. He also is charged with driving on a suspended or canceled license, a misdemeanor.

The fatal crash occurred at about 3:30 p.m. March 5 in the 2200 block of North Jackson, according to a police report.

Donn, 54, was killed in the crash. The car’s driver – Day – was taken to a local hospital in critical condition.

Day was arrested and booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on Thursday on suspicion of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and driving without a license, records show. He remains in custody on $250,000 bond.

Day is due back in court June 5 for a preliminary hearing.

Kansas Department of Corrections records show Day has served time in prison on multiple Sedgwick County convictions since 1983, including driving while a habitual violator, robbery and aggravated battery. Day also was convicted of felony driving under the influence in October 2003, according to Sedgwick County District Court records.